The Hubspace Emissary
by Lu-Gi-Oh
Summary: My second Subspace Emissary fanmake. Optimus Prime, Twilight Sparkle and many others must unite to save their world from being dragged into a dark dimension called Hubspace. Characters taken from shows on The Hub.
1. Invasion? It Could Happen

A/N: Here I am again, with yet another Subspace Emissary fanmake. I kinda feel like a relapsing addict, but the idea just came to me, and now I can't stop thinking about it.

This time, I'll be using characters from what's currently my favorite channel, The Hub. Any series that currently airs, or have aired on some point, on the Hub will be fair game in this fanfic.

Oh, and this time, I'm including Assist Trophies and Final Smashes.

* * *

**THE HUBSPACE EMISSARY**

**Chapter 1: Invasion? It Could Happen**

**By: Lu-Gi-Oh**

In this world, trophies fight.

They know nothing but fighting. Fighting is the sole reason for their existence.

Being turned back into a trophy, being unable to fight, is much like death.

Those are the rules of this world.

No one ever thought to question the rules of this world, for it was all the inhabitants of the Hubworld of Trophies ever knew. Especially not on this day, as the Midair Stadium (which, as its name suggested, was suspended high above the ground) was filled to capacity with spectators. Beings of all kinds, such as humans, teddy bears, creatures, and ponies (including, if one were to look closely enough, a cross-eyed Pegasus pony) sat in the stands in eager anticipation.

Amongst the audience were two women. One of them was a redhead with green eyes, wearing a brown shirt underneath yellow and green body armor, blue pants, and tan military boots. Her name was Shana O' Hara, though most addressed her by her codename...

**SCARLETT**

To Scarlett's left was a blue autonomous robotic organism several times bigger than her with a slender, feminine figure. Her name was...

**ARCEE**

Both ladies were in high spirits, for they couldn't wait for the day's match to start.

"So, Scarlett, ready to see Optimus kick the competition's tailpipe?" Arcee asked in a confident tone.

"Hey now, you Autobots may be bigger than the rest of us, but bigger isn't always better. I'm sure that if Duke were here today, he could figure out a way to beat Optimus," Scarlett answered.

"An average Joe versus a robot big enough to his use Duke's head as a toothbrush and has clocked millions of years worth of battle experience. Very even match-up," Arcee said sarcastically. "Speaking of Duke, where is he anyway?"

"On a mission, along with the rest of the team."

"The same goes for the rest of Team Prime, so it looks like it's just going to be us girls here today."

Just then, every voice in the audience gradually died down as a triumphant orchestral fanfare blared throughout the stadium. In the commentators' booth, an announcer cleared his throat before speaking into his microphone.

"Welcome to the start of the 3rd Annual Hubworld Smash Tournament! And you're in for quite a treat here today, folks, for even though our fighters here today are both veterans from the previous tournaments, both combatants have since undergone powerful new transformations. But which is more powerful? We're about to find the answer!"

"Our first contender, coming all the way from the planet Cybertron, is the compassionate and yet robust last of the Primes, bearer of the Matrix of Leadership, and the commander of the Autobots. Everyone say hello to OPTIMUS PRIME!"

A trophy is thrown into the stadium. After coming to a rest on the ground, the trophy's stand illuminated a bright light that traveled up to the top of the trophy's head before dissipating. As the light faded, the trophy came to life. The newly awakened warrior was a very tall and bulky(even by the standards of the rest of his kind) autonomous robotic lifeform with blue legs, a red chest and forearms, a blue, helmet-like head, a mouthplate covering his mouth, and a jetpack on his back.

**OPTIMUS PRIME**

"And his opponent today, coming all the way from the land of Equestria, is the prodigal student of Princess Celestia, the representative of the Element of Magic, and all-around heroine of Ponyville. _A__nd apparently, she's a__n alicorn __princess __now,_" the announcer muttered the last part to himself. "It's TWILIGHT SPARKLE!"

Another trophy was thrown into the arena, and, while still in midair, its stand also brightened before a light ascended up the body, bringing the trophy to life just before hitting the ground. Coming out of her suspended animation was a lavender alicorn (a pony with both Pegasus wings and an Unicorn horn) with a dark indigo mane and tail with a pink and purple streak in each. On her haunch was a symbol, called a cutie-mark, of a six-pointed star with five smaller stars surrounding it.

**TWILIGHT SPARKLE**

Twilight looked up at the Transformer in front of her and smiled in glee. "I can't believe I'm about to fight THE Optimus Prime! A Cybertronian, especially one of his caliber, will the perfect test to see how far I've come with my magic. I even spent the last few days reading up on as much as I could on Cybertronian warfare to prepare myself for this." But then, Twilight's eyes widen in realization. "Oh no! All the time I spent studying on Cybertronian warfare made me forget to schedule time for me to schedule my time! WHAT AM I GOING TO DO!?"

"Twilight Sparkle," Optimus called out to her in an attempt to calm her nerves. "Focus on the task at hand."

"Oh, uh, right." Twilight lowered her head to where her horn, now engulfed in a magenta-colored aura, pointed at Optimus, preparing to fire a spell. Optimus, likewise, got into a fighter stance.

"Get ready!" the announcer called out to the combatants. "GO!"

* * *

Meanwhile, in a land high in the sky called Care-a-Lot, a single observer, perched at the top of a lighthouse, watched Optimus' and Twilight's fight through a telescope.

"I have a feeling that this will be an interesting match," said the spectator, who was a brown teddy bear with a symbol, called a belly badge, of a red heart with a pink outline on his stomach.

**TENDERHEART BEAR**

"Twilight is very powerful at magic, but Optimus has both a size advantage and an impressive arsenal. I wonder who will win." Tenderheart then chuckled to himself. "I'm starting to sound like Wonderheart."

* * *

After a long drawn battle, Optimus Prime emerged victorious. Twilight Sparkle, again a lifeless trophy, made a thud as she made impact with the arena floor.

"This game's winner is...Optimus Prime!" the announcer declared.

Optimus knelled down and tapped Twilight's stand with his finger and after a bright flash, Twilight was brought back to life. Twilight got back on her hooves and looked around in disbelief at her loss.

"I can't believe I lost," Twilight lamented, lowering her head in shame.

"You demonstrated exemplary mastery of your discipline, as well as showing sound judgment in the heat of battle. Regardless of the outcome, you have done Princess Celestia proud," Optimus said in an encouraging tone.

The equine smiled at Optimus' words. "Yeah, you're right."

Both combatants shook hands (or rather, Optimus awkwardly placed his index finger and thumb around one of Twilight's front hooves and shook it) before turning to the cheering crowds and waving.

However, the celebratory moment came to an abrupt end when a rumbling sound caught Optimus' attention. He and Twilight both looked up and saw the clear blue sky being swallowed by dark red clouds. Accompanying the red clouds was a much bigger white cloud, so big that an entire city, with buildings designed resembling ancient Greek architecture, rested atop of it.

Twilight gasped in disbelief. "Cloudsdale!?"

"You are familiar with this unusual weather phenomenon?" Optimus asked.

"It's not an unusual weather phenomenon, it's Cloudsdale, a city in the clouds populated entirely by Pegasus ponies. They produce all of the weather in Equestria there, but I don't know what it's doing here."

As if to answer Twilight's question, a hatch opened underneath Clousdale, releasing small purple particles into the arena. As the particles touched the ground, they lumped together and formed into sinister scarecrow-like entities, stuffed with the Shadow Bugs that formed them.

Twilight couldn't hide the worried expression on her face. "Whatever these things are, they don't look very friendly."

Optimus, however, narrowed his optical sensors, fixated at the newly arrived adversaries. "Twilight Sparkle, I suspect that Cloudsdale has been commandeered by someone with nefarious purposes."

"But by who? Nopony else can even stand on clouds besides Pegasi."

In the audience, Scarlett and Arcee faced one another and, without exchanging any words, nodded in agreement. Without wasting any movements, Arcee transformed into her vehicle mode, a blue motorcycle, and Scarlett hopped onto the driver's seat just as the transformation ended. Arcee, with Scarlett in tow, drove down the stairs and, without decelerating, leaped into the arena, not transforming back into her robot mode until reaching the apex of her jump. Both ladies landed right behind Optimus and Twilight.

"Scarlett! Arcee!" Twilight exclaimed.

"Thought you could use some backup against those hostile hollow men," Scarlett explained.

Optimus nodded in acceptance. "We must make our stand here, before any harm can befall upon the spectators."

The four fighters assumed fighter stances before lunging into action. Twilight fired Magic Sparks, concussive blasts of magic, from her horn, shattering several of the scarecrows back into Shadow Bugs. Scarlett shot lasers from her High Tech Plasma Pulse Crossbow, blowing apart several more scarecrows. Arcee stomped on and kicked away any scarecrow that got too close to her and blasted further away enemies with her arm blasters. Optimus pulled out a giant Gatling gun and decimated the remaining opposition.

Twilight sighed in relief. "Well, that takes care of those weird scarecrows. Now we just need to figure out..."

"Hold on!" Arcee cut her off. "Someone else is coming!"

Arcee aimed her arm blasters at an approaching figure wearing green robes that concealed everything except for his small, black eyes and riding a floating platform with a big round object with a red 'x' on it hanging from the bottom. This anonymous character had dubbed himself The...

**ANCIENT MISTER**

The others followed Arcee's lead and targeted their weapons (or horn, in Twilight's case) at the Ancient Mister in caution. "If you come with hostile intentions, know this: We will defend ourselves. We will defend humanity, and all other sentient beings who call this planet their home," said Optimus.

But the Ancient Mister remained quiet and dropped the round object to the ground. Two moving Mr. Monopoly statues suddenly appeared and stuck their hands into two slots on each side of the object. The statues pulled open the object, revealing a timer set at three minutes counting down.

"IT'S A BOMB!" Twilight gasped.

The Ancient Mister nodded and quickly flew away, retreating back to Cloudsdale. As the countdown continued, Optimus took a few steps and reached the bomb.

"Twilight Sparkle, can you teleport this bomb to an uninhabited area?" the Autobot leader asked.

"I don't think I can," Twilight said grimly. "Whenever I use the Teleportation Spell, I have to visualize the destination. But I'm not familiar enough with this area to know where to safely warp the bomb to. I know of a few vacant locations in Equestria, but from here, they're outside of my teleportation range."

"How about using a Groundbridge?" Scarlett suggested.

"Sending such a volatile device through a Groundbridge is out of the question. If there were to be an accident during its transmission, the resulting explosion could propagate through the Groundbridge Vortex, and harm all fifty states and beyond," Optimus explained.

"So what _do_ we do? We don't exactly have a lot of options here," said Arcee.

"I'm afraid we have no other alternatives. I will carry the explosive device as far away from here as..." Optimus stopped mid-sentence and turned around after hearing a loud noise behind him. However, he couldn't make out anything past the huge cloud of dust that was suddenly behind his allies. Before he could even react, a huge fireball flew out of the cloud of dust and hit Optimus so hard that it launched the Prime clean over the horizon, making a twinkle in the sky.

"OPTIMUS!" Twilight called out.

And not a moment afterwards, Twilight heard the sounds of metal clanging right behind her. She turned around and saw, to her horror, both Scarlett and Arcee trapped in cages. And carrying the cages, one in each hand, was a black mechanical dragon so massive that its orange wings had a wingspan of two football fields. Looming over the pony was none other than the resurrected Predacon, Predaking.

"A _Predacon_!? I thought they were extinct!" Twilight yelled. Predaking responded by clashing the two cages together and roaring in Twilight's face. Overwhelmed by the Predacon's breath, Twilight waved a hoof in front of her face in an attempt to fan away the smell. "Well, he definitely doesn't _smell_ extinct." After repelling the stench from her nostrils, the alicorn put her hoof down, her face now full of determination. "But either way, I have to rescue my friends from that dragon."

Taking to the air, Twilight damaged Scarlett's cage with a few Magic Sparks, but before she could do anything more, Predaking swung his hand forward and smacked her away with the cage. Twilight recovered from the attack just in time to see Predaking high in the air and descending down towards her fast. Thinking fast, the purple pony managed to teleport away just before getting crushed beneath the behemoth dragon's feet.

In a bright flash of light, Twilight reappeared in front of Predaking. "Oh, who am I kidding? I'm not going to save Scarlett and Arcee unless I beat that Predacon first."

Twilight strained her muscles and gritted her teeth, concentrating on casting a powerful spell. After a few seconds, she fired a large beam of magical energy into Predaking's face. However, the attack did little visible damage and only further aggravated the Autobot Hunter.

"That was my most powerful spell!" Twilight yelled in disbelief. But after thinking about it, she revised her statement. "Well, there is _that_, but..."

Before Twilight could finish, Predaking again slapped her with Scarlett's cage, and though she was able to conjure up a protective shield in the nick of time, the force of the blow still knocked her all the way to the other side of the arena.

As she got back on her hooves, Twilight noticed a trophy encased in a glass dome right next to her. "An Assist Trophy! Just what I needed!"

She grabbed the Assist Trophy with one of her front hooves, somehow, and raised it above her head. The Assist Trophy cracked open, revealing a medium-sized, mixed breed dog with purple fur on his backside and tail and peach fur covering the rest of his body. The dog wore a red collar with a doghouse tag on it.

"Oh, hey, Twilight, how's it go..._GAH!_" hollered Lucky, the normally calm and collected leader of the Shelter 17 Pound Puppies unit, as he saw Predaking quickly advancing towards them. "What is that thing!?"

"A Cybertronian dragon, and I need your help to beat him," Twilight explained.

"Wait, you want me to fight _THAT!?_ He'll turn me into dog chow!"

"You know the rules, Lucky. I summoned you, so you have to help me until your time here runs out. And besides, I don't need you to fight him. I just need you to distract him long enough for me cast a difficult spell."

By this much time, Predaking had caught up to Twilight and Lucky. He lowered his head down to their level and snarled at them.

This gave Lucky an idea. "Alright, I'll see what I can do," he said in a coolly manner. The dog then jumped right on top of Predaking's snout, obscuring the dragon's vision. "How about I interest you adopting a puppy. _A pup for every person, and a person for every pup_; that's the Pound Puppies motto." Lucky then thought for a second. "Actually, now that I think about it, would you be the person, or would you be the pet?"

Predaking violently veered his head left and right, trying desperately to fling Lucky off of him. However, the Pound Puppies leader had his paws firmly gripped onto his snout and held on for dear life.

Twilight, meanwhile, was physically straining herself to near exhaustion, putting all of her energy into casting an advanced spell. After struggling with it for about ten seconds, Twilight eventually succeeded in summoning an orb that glowed a rainbow color. This orb was none other than a Smash Ball, an item that could unlock one's true potential.

Smashing the orb open with a hoof, Twilight absorbed the Smash Ball's power into herself. She too began to glow a rainbow color, in addition to her eyes turning yellow. "Alright, Lucky. You can let go now," she called out to the dog.

Lucky turned to Twilight and nodded. "Alright, the rest I leave up to you then. Good luck, Twilight." And with that, Lucky suddenly disappeared in a flash of light, as his time as a summon had just ended.

Now able to see again, Predaking glared at the sight of Twilight Sparkle. Twilight, however, remained firm, standing her ground against the colossal threat. "It's time to end this," Twilight said with confidence.

Utilizing the power granted to her by the Smash Ball, Twilight drew into the most latent magical power inside of her. However...

"I CAN'T CONTROL IT!"

Quickly becoming too much for her to handle, the vast magic energy inside of Twilight became unstable until it burst out of her in a massive explosion. Taking the blunt of the Magic Nova, Predaking gave an anguished cry of defeat before falling on his back and exploding himself.

From the midst of Predaking's explosion, Twilight and Scarlett, now free from her cage, leaped out of the smokescreen. As they both looked back at the dust cloud, they saw someone else land in the arena. And strangely enough, he looked nearly identical to Optimus Prime's former appearance, the only differences being his cold yellow optics, in contrast to Optimus' blue optics, and his general rusty look and darker colors.

**NEMESIS PRIME**

Twilight squinted her eyes at the newcomer. "Optimus?" she asked, uncertain at who she was looking at.

In a voice that perfectly mimicked Optimus', Nemesis replied, "I am Optimus Prime, leader of the Autobots, and I bring you this message."

A Dark Cannon, a hand cannon vaguely resembling a dragon's head, materialized in Nemesis' hand, which he used to take aim at Twilight and Scarlett.

"Cut the theatricals, Silas, you're not fooling anyone. Besides, Optimus doesn't even look like that anymore," Scarlett said undeterred.

"What're you talking about?" Twilight asked the female Joe.

"What's standing before us isn't Optimus, obviously. It's a doppelganger created by the terrorist group, MECH, and remotely-controlled by their leader, Ex-Special Tactics Colonel Leland Bishop, AKA Silas," Scarlett explained.

"My reputation precedes me, I see," said a voice coming from Nemesis, this one having a distinct deep and resonant voice. This voice belonged to Silas, the leader of MECH, speaking through Nemesis Prime.

Scarlett cocked an eyebrow. "Wait, are you really Silas?"

"In the flesh, in a manner of speaking. Why do you ask?" he responded.

"Well, you sound exactly like Destro, but nevermind that. What're you doing here?"

"I'm just here to take this Dark Cannon, the latest technology acquired by MECH, out for a test run. And you two will be my test subjects."

A groan coming from behind him caught Nemesis' attention. He turned his head and saw Arcee crawling out of her cage weakly.

"Well, if it isn't Arcee." Nemesis turned his cannon towards Arcee. "A change in plans. First rule of combat: Never leave the enemy with the spoils."

"Arcee, run!" Twilight warned the Autobot.

"Get out of there, now!" Scarlett added.

But it was too late, as Nemesis fired the Dark Cannon. Arcee only had time to look up and mutter "Scrap!" before getting hit by the arrow shot by the Dark Cannon and instantly reverting back to a trophy.

Nemesis Prime hopped over and threw the trophy over his shoulders. "I would say that this was a successful field test. But now it's time to get Arcee here back to the lab. She still owes me a heart." And with a single leap, Nemesis Prime was gone.

"Get back here!" Scarlett shouted, giving chase after Nemesis.

Twilight followed pursuit, glancing at the bomb as she ran by, which now only had a few seconds left on the timer. "Oh no, we forgot about the bomb!" she realized.

5...4...3...2...1

A sphere of darkness was released from the bomb, engulfing the Midair Stadium and everyone inside of it. Twilight, with Scarlett riding on her back, flew away from the stadium as fast as her wings could take her, narrowly avoiding the same fate.

"Ram it all!" Twilight cursed. "I should've been focusing on the bomb! And now all of those innocent lives in that stadium are..."

"It's not your fault, Twilight," Scarlett reassured her. "That Predacon and Nemesis Prime were specifically there to distract us. It looks like both MECH and the Decepticons are in bed with that robed guy we saw before. And I'm willing to bet Cobra Industries is involved in this somehow too."

"Well, whoever's responsible for this, we need to stop them before anypony, er, any_one_ else gets hurt."

"Which is why we need to pursue Cloudsdale immediately and take down the leader of this invasion," Scarlett recommended.

* * *

Later that day, in the Los Angeles area, a man named Dan sat in his apartment, watching TV.

"After the initial attack on the Midair Stadium, several more landmarks have been sent into another dimension, which scientists are now dubbing 'The Hubspace Realm'," the reporter on TV stated.

"Aww, _c'mon_! Who _cares_ about some interdimensional aliens sending a stadium full of people into their world! Would they stop preempting my stories already? They're the only thing I look forward to after a miserable, no-good day!" Dan complained at the TV.

"Sighted during the attacks was a robed figure riding some sort of floating platform. This suspect, nicknamed 'The Emissary of Hubspace' by law enforcement and government agencies, is believed to be the leader of the invaders," the reporter continued. From off-screen, someone passed a sheet of paper to the reporter, which the reporter held up to the camera. "This just in."

"Read it!" yelled someone off-camera.

"Another Hubspace Bomb has been activated right here in Los Angeles. However, it would seem that this bomb was a dud, as it didn't drag anyone or anything into Hubspace except for a single abandoned car in front of a dingy apartment building."

Dan's eyes went wide in realization. "Hey, wait a minute!"

He looked outside of his apartment window, and, surely enough, there was a dark void of Hubspace where his car used to be.

"MY CAR!" Dan exclaimed. He caught glimpse of the Ancient Mister floating away from the scene. "YOU!" Dan pointed accusingly at the Ancient Mister. "You better have insurance!"

But the Ancient Mister only turned to him and said nothing as he continued to fly towards Cloudsdale far off into the distance. Soon, the robed figure was out of sight.

His anger reaching the breaking point, Dan raised his fists into the air and screamed towards the sky, "_**HUB**__**SPACE EMISSARY!**_"

* * *

A/N: Well, here it is, the first chapter of my new Subspace Emissary fanmake, posted exactly a year after I posted the last chapter of my previous Subspace Emissary fanmake. (And nope, didn't plan that at all. Just a happy coincidence.)

Characters introduced:

Scarlett (G.I. Joe Renegades) - Zelda

Arcee (Transformers Prime) - Peach

Optimus Prime (Transformers Prime) - Mario

Twilight Sparkle (My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic) - Kirby

Tenderheart Bear (Care Bears: Welcome to Care-a-Lot) - Pit

Ancient Mister - Ancient Minister (Nope, I'm not gonna spoil it for you.)

Predaking (Transformers Prime) - Petey Piranha

Lucky (Pound Puppies) - Nintendog

Nemesis Prime (Transformers Prime) - Wario

As for Dan, that was a little early-bird cameo I decided to throw in. You'll have to wait and see who he's playing in this fic.


	2. A Cross to Bear

A/N: Thanks to everyone who read my first chapter. Sorry it took so long to update, but part of it was due to me catching up on a few things that I had on my backlog for a long time and part of it was due to me being so nervicited by the Smash Bros 4 trailer that I couldn't concentrate on anything else. :) And THEN real life stuff got in the way. I also wanted this chapter to be longer, but I've decided to split what I intended to be Chapter 2 into two chapters.

A funny coincidence: Last chapter, in the segment with Dan, I threw in a couple of lines from Tiny Toons. It was just something I decided to put in there. And then, lo and behold, about a month after I wrote that, Tiny Toons started airing on The Hub. Apparently, I'm psychic. :)

JusSonic and Vision-King: Yeah, I've read them already.

* * *

**Chapter 2: A Cross to Bear**

_Previously on the Hubspace Emissary, the 3__rd__ Annual Hubworld Smash Tournament kicked off with a bout between Optimus Prime and Twilight Sparkle. __However, just as the match ended, Cloudsdale unexpectedly loomed over the stadium, releasing hostile scarecrow-like entities made of Shadow Bugs. Optimus and Twilight, with help from Arcee and Scarlett, seemingly neutralize the threat, but a mysterious cloaked figure, only known as the Ancient Mister, __arrived and set a Hubspace Bomb in the arena. Despite the heroes best efforts, they fail to disarm the bomb in time, and the whole stadium is dragged into the dark dimension known as Hubspace, with Arcee captured by Nemesis Prime, Optimus missing in action after being flung into the sky by Predaking, and Twilight and Scarlett narrowly escaping._

_Fortunately, someone, or rather some_bear, _is willing to help._

* * *

A sleuth of seven bears was gathered in front of the Care-a-Lot lighthouse. Tenderheart, who called the others over with his belly badge power, had just finished telling them what happened at the Midair Stadium.

"Oh no! That's terrible!" cried out Share Bear, a light purple Care Bear with two heart-shaped lollipops for a belly badge.

Tenderheart's niece, Wonderheart Bear, a young cub with pink fur and a three-layered heart belly badge, clutched onto her stuffed animal, Floppy Bunny. "It must be really scary for all those people stuck in that dark Hubspace place. I wonder if there's anything we can do to help them."

"Actually, Wonderheart, that's why I gathered all of you here," Tenderheart began explaining.

"Well, I hate to steal your catchphrase, but I have a feeling I know what you're going to say next," Funshine Bear said enthusiastically. He was a yellow bear with a smiling sun belly badge. "We're going to go and teach those Hubspace Army guys a lesson, right?"

"That's a great idea, Funshine!" said Cheer Bear excitedly. She was a pink bear with a rainbow belly badge. "If we show them the importance of love and friendship, surely they'll stop this invasion and become friends with everyone."

Funshine scratched the back of his head in embarrassment. "Actually, I meant teach them a _lesson_!" To emphasize his point, Funshine punched and kicked the air in front of him several times, imitating a martial artist.

Tenderheart sighed sadly. "Unfortunately, I think Funshine has the right idea. I've never before seen creatures as black-hearted as those scarecrows who attacked the stadium. I have a feeling that words alone won't be enough to sway them. And that's why I'm going down below by myself."

The other Care Bears gasped in protest.

"But you can't go alone! It's too dangerous!" said Harmony Bear, a dark purple bear with a flower belly badge.

"Sorry, everybear, but I'm the only one here who's a trained martial artist. If I took the rest of you with me, I'd only be putting all of you in danger," Tenderheart argued.

"But Uncle Tenderheart, there must be _something_ we can do to help," Wonderheart pleaded.

"Oh, don't worry, little one, there is one way you all can help." Tenderheart then turned to face a light blue bear with a cloud belly badge, the only bear in the group to not speak yet. "Grumpy, do you still have your emergency Smash Ball?"

Grumpy Bear groaned in annoyance. "Well, I _was_ going to save it for the next time Beastly tries to mess with my Care-a-Van, but fine, here ya go."

After a brief rummaging through the Care-y-All bag he was wearing, Grumpy opened up his paw, and the Smash Ball he had been safekeeping glided right into Tenderheart's grasp.

Tenderheart nodded in gratitude as he pocketed the Smash Ball. "Thank you, Grumpy. If I ever find myself in a real jam, I'll be able to use this Smash Ball in order to..."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, we know," Grumpy grumbled. "Now don't you have a world to save or something? I was in the middle of eating before you called all of us over here."

And with that, the other Care Bears took turns saying their goodbyes and wishing Tenderheart good luck on his mission. As everybear finished their farewells, Tenderheart dashed towards the edge of a nearby cliff and turned around. With his back facing the cliff and his arms outstretched, Tenderheart closed his eyes and leaned back, falling off of Care-a-Lot.

As Tenderheart descended, he twirled around to face the endless sea of clouds that he was falling through. Unworried of his predicament, Tenderheart arched his body straight up, crossed his arms, and folded his legs towards his body, sitting in an Indian style position as he fell. Taking a deep breath, Tenderheart concentrated and materialized a cloud underneath him and a bubble encasing himself, acting as a parachute and gradually slowing down his plummet.

Eventually, Tenderheart landed gently on a patch of land surrounded by clouds. Dismissing his protective bubble and cloud, Tenderheart barely had time to take in the sights when a rumbling sound caught his attention. Turning around to the source of the noise, Tenderheart witnessed Cloudsdale rising up from the surrounding clouds. The Care Bear stood in awe as the imposing Pegasus city fully revealed itself.

"Oh my, to think that Cloudsdale could travel all the way up here so quickly," Tenderheart said to himself.

On the move, Cloudsdale flew right over Tenderheart's head, distributing the same dark particles it dropped into the stadium as it went by. Tenderheart looked uneasy as the Shadow Bugs landed and took form of the same scarecrows he saw invade the Midair Stadium.

"I have a feeling that this is bad," Tenderheart stated the obvious.

By now, Tenderheart was completely surrounded. As the scarecrows advanced threateningly towards the Care Bear, Tenderheart wrinkled his brow and assumed a fighting stance. "Before you come any closer, I must warn you that I'm a practitioner of yo-chi." Not heeding his words, the scarecrows continued their advance. Tenderheart sighed in regret. "Don't say I didn't warn you."

Like an action hero straight of a kung fu movie, Tenderheart lunged into the fray, taking out scores of scarecrows with various martial arts techniques so fast and precise that his foes were completely outclassed. Eventually, Tenderheart somehow noticed through the chaos of combat that an Assist Trophy had appeared at the edge of the patch of land. Not wanting a potentially powerful asset to be used against him, Tenderheart immediately closed his eyes and wiggled his ears, beaming himself (known outside of Care-a-Lot as teleportation) next to the Assist Trophy.

Tenderheart activated the Assist Trophy, releasing a being of pure evil. He had gray skin, a bald head, red, pupil-less eyes, and wore a dark, sleeveless shirt, as well as gloves and knee high boots.

"Who would dare to summon Darkseid?" said the tyrannical ruler of planet Apokolips.

"Hello. I'm Tenderheart Bear," Tenderheart introduced himself. "And I need your help in taking care of these scarecrows. They're getting quite unruly."

Darkseid snuffed at the request. "Such lowly beasts are beneath my concern."

Tenderheart raised a paw and lifted up his index finger. "Now, now, Darkseid. You know the rules. You don't want to upset You-Know-Who, do you?"

Darkseid snarled, frowning even more than normal. But then his frown turned into an ever-so-slight smirk. "Very well, then," the New God agreed. "I am many things, Tenderheart Bear. You couldn't even begin to imagine half of them. But for now, I shall take the role of herder."

Darkseid folded his arms behind his back as a white platform rose from beneath his feet, carrying the villain away from the patch of land and towards the horizon, stopping just far away enough for the entire battlefield to be in view from Darkseid's perspective. Darkseid's eyes fired laser beams that arched in sharp angles seemingly at random as they traveled through the air before hitting their target, instantly incinerating the scarecrow furthest away from Tenderheart.

"I shall slowly move my Omega Beams across the battlefield, eradicating any pest that makes contact with them," Darkseid explained. "This distraction should provide you the opportunity to eliminate the remainder of your opposition, assuming of course that you have what it takes to defeat preoccupied foes."

"But if you do that, I would be in danger of getting zapped by one of your Omega Beams too," Tenderheart objected.

"Then I suggest that you run, Tenderheart Bear."

Without further comment, Darkseid began sweeping his Omega Beams across the patch of land, destroying any scarecrow too slow to react in time whilst scattering the rest. Averting their attention away from Tenderheart, the surviving scarecrows put their immediate focus on escaping Darkseid's beams of doom. This gave the Care Bear the opening he needed to vanquish most of them, as his beaming skills made it easier for him to avoid the Omega Beams. Darkseid abruptly changing the Omega Beam's direction several times was enough to mislead the last remaining scarecrows into getting vaporized.

When the coast was clear, Tenderheart waved at Darkseid. "Thank you for your help, Darkseid."

"And you shall return the favor by being granted a slow, agonizing death when I conquer this planet," Darkseid replied before disappearing.

As soon as Darkseid left, Tenderheart raised a paw above his eyes and squinted, noticing what looked to be a dormant trophy just up ahead. A closer inspection revealed that it was Optimus. A quick stand tap later, the fallen Autobot leader was revived.

As his systems came back online, the memory of getting blasted into the sky resurfaced in Optimus' mind. "What happened to the stadium?" he asked as frantically as possible while still sounding dignified.

"Well..." A flashback of the Midair Stadium getting sucked into Hubspace intruded Tenderheart's consciousness. Hesitant to being the bearer of bad news, Tenderheart decided to change the subject. "I'll explain later. Right now, we need to catch up with Cloudsdale. It's just up ahead of us."

"Then time is of the essence," said Optimus. After a brief nod, the newly formed pair raced after Cloudsdale.

On the way, Optimus and Tenderheart ran into more scarecrows made out of Shadow Bugs, but the duo's combined might made short work of them. After several minutes, they reached the end of the cloud road they traveled on, and Cloudsdale flying away just beyond it.

"There it is!" Tenderheart pointed towards the mobile city. "We can still catch up to it if we use your jetpack."

"Hmm..." Optimus contemplated.

"Huh? What's wrong?"

"One thing still troubles me. Twilight Sparkle informed me that only Pegasi were capable of treading on Cloudsdale."

Tenderheart smacked his forehead with his palm. "That's right, I forgot! Only winged creatures can stand on clouds in Equestria. In Care-a-Lot, however, the clouds are enchanted to support anybear or anyone that steps on them, even someone as heavy as you. That's the reason why we haven't fallen right through these clouds."

"But the fact remains that it would be...difficult to storm a vessel that we are incapable of setting foot on."

Tenderheart scratched the back of his head. "Gee, Optimus, I guess you're right. So what do you propose we do?"

"We may be able to derail our enemies' objectives...by removing their head."

"Oh, you mean that guy wearing those robes. Sounds good to me."

"In the meantime, we shall entrust the repossession of Cloudsdale to our pony allies."

Just then, an A136, a blue, vaguely egg-shaped flying vehicle with an orange windshield and short and stubby legs for landing gear, sped past Optimus' and Tenderheart's heads in hot pursuit of Cloudsdale, leaving a slight but noticeable trail of afterimages as it cut through the air.

"You don't suppose that was one of our pony allies, do you?" Tenderheart shrugged.

* * *

A/N: Characters introduced:

Darkseid (Superman: The Animated Series): The Devil


End file.
